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Festival Nuart street Uncategorized

Nuart 2019

It was nice to be asked back to Nuart after a few years away from Stavanger. As i used to work on production for the festival, the visit was radically different to my previous years experiences. Coupled with the fact i was painting my new Gaffa-tape “Stick em” up series, it gave me a fresh pair of eyes to see the town and festival. No cherry pickers, no assistants and no confirmed walls meant i was free to wander the town and paint these little pieces on doors and electrical cabinets at my own pace.

In my opinion, the placement of art on the street is often key to the work’s success, both visually and, often, in terms of its longevity. It’s a dynamic that is hard to re-create during a festival, as artists from all over the world descend on a town or city with pre-ordered paint, ideas and walls. With artists wanting to go large, festivals wanting a mark worthy of the booking and a city wanting eye-candy to brighten its darkest corners, that placement is often overlooked. As a producer, i am only too well aware of the conflict between all the interests, the art form and its roots. So it was great when Martyn Reed offered a retro way of working for my trip to Nuart 2019.

Photo by Runa Andersen

A map showing the spots painted over the 4 days in town.

Nuart is a festival close to my heart, it’s always great fun and the shows in the beer halls at Tou have been some of my proudest production moments. It’s always a great crew thats easy to work with and a real party feeling for the week or two that you’re there. Loved a lot of the work around me and it was a pleasure to be asked back to take part

Above Oscar and Gabriel, local rude kids who have grown up with Nuart and who i’ve know through the festival since birth. This year they made it into the show.

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Festival film Nuart

Take your pick

I am sure you all know that feeling… After a big night out, you wake in the morning with that horrible feeling of dread and guilt at what has gone on the night before…Then you realise you probably got away with it? Then you remember you had a camera crew with you… Good job they are very good friends!

MZM PROJECTS” is an independent group formed in Ukraine by Kristina Borhes and Nazar Tymoshchuk, focused on research and documentation of the street art, graffiti, post-graffiti and other artistic practices in urban culture.

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Competition Festival treasure hunt

Competition Time!!

I moved studios recently after 8 years…with 8 years worth of tat, cardboard tubes, knick knacks and trash. Some of this stuff i just haven’t got room for, some i am tired looking at it and some of it’s therapeutic. So its Competition Time! All you have to do is Photograph yourself under this flashing arrow behind East Croydon Station.

A few weeks ago for the #CroydonRising festival Croydon Council backed the installation of my I AM HERE sign See below :


Id like you to get your self down to Croydon ( details below ) Strike a pose! Be Fabulous… or not…make yourself known or at least memorable! Be imaginative? Be bold, brave, but be seen! Look at the lovely prizes on offer today!

 In order to WIN!


50 x 50 test spray for larger diet life work

Silkscreen on Babinga veneer, 1m x 55cm


Ruler in for scale 1.5x 3.2m on fabrino paper robbie the robot test spray

detail

Ruler in for scale! Test spray on fabrino paper 2.1m x 1.5m
Mr potato test spray


A4 size work on aluminium

All you have to do make  a post of yourself under the sign to win one of a number of the above work and prints. There are 5 prizes so and they will be given to the most deserving entry. Either Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, @Dotmasters with #IAMHERE #Croydon Rising

or email it to: info[ at ] dotmaster.co.uk    with subject #IAMHERE

Competition ends 19th of October Winners announced 23rd Oct.

You gotta be in it to win it!

HOW TO FIND IT

Its a regeneration zone so things change quickly round there, its of a new walkway off Dingwall road in Croydon that runs parallel with the tracks of East Croydon station

So heres the  map location https://goo.gl/maps/PNbpvwjsEKS2

if you coming by train as you get off the train Its at the last left hand exit facing away from the station. and back into London , down the steps from the walkway  and its in front of the steps.

I Believe there is a Croydon Rising App that helps you find all the new work around town here https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/rise-festival/id1420023039?mt=8

 

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Festival Fuiji Rock Festival Japan Mutoid waste department travel

Unfairground Fuji Rock 2018

When we found out there was no Glastonbury 2018 we decided to take the Unfairground on tour. Having presented some of the sideshows in the Palace of Wonder (the late night spot at Fuji Rock) in 2012, when Glastonbury last rested the land, It seemed only natural to take the whole motley crew off to Naeba for 2018’s 20th anniversary of Fuji rock !

 For our Japanese trip we recruited Unfairground favourites Ben Eine and Inkie on painting duties as well as Local legend Masagon and Myself. We packed Sam Haggerty’s sculptures into a shipping container or two and sent them off to Japan in May.


Pryratrix Circus Joined us to help entertain the crowds, with Born on road, Jagz Kooner and Jack from Children of acid providing the tunes for the weekend. In all a Uncrew of 50 headed off for the mountains of Naeba, taking a slice of site life to fields of Fuji rock.


Ben Eine mixes it up

Inkie’s kongee

Masagon went Dotty

And Dotty went freehand.
With the hottest weather on record, the Unfairground crew melted across the old Orange court. Thankfully The Typhoon that hit us Saturday night didn’t cause too much damage. We’d like to Thank Naeba and Yuzawa councils for inviting us, Smash go round for making it all happen and Bryan burton lewis for being so special. Thanks to all who came, threw some shapes and tagged us in those million photos that got taken! Thanks Guys it was real!



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Festival Friends Glastonbury murals Press sideshow

Unfairground 17

Ahhh, Glastonbury, It’;s a double edged sword. An obstacle course through a chaotic fairground. Due to the Cannes lions gig appearing in the middle of my usual build, work started early in June, dragging the sideshows out, fixing trailers, building 28 foot mouths the usual thing for a uncrew carnie . Each year we ask a new artist to paint the hoardings in the unfairground. I’ve know Inkie for many years and thought his style would give a post victorian edge to our twisted fairground setting.

This year i brought a new sideshow, Small fortunes, Dystopian futures that favour the unfair! Cross there palms in silver and delve into the future from our resident fortune tellers the Queens of the Underworld and Ted’s Walker. We had queues of the curious leaving satified if not perplexed.

We had a cracking year, with the misery of the previous years festival forgotten. No one can remember a hotter build, a fuller or friendlier festival. We had a Cracker!

Usual thanks to all the Uncrew! The folly family, our incredible production staff, everyone on the bars back stage and back! Jagz kooner, Bez, Scouse and fatty for the battle bus stage. OIf course for Sam Haggerty making it all happen in the first place and all those who came, watched the freak shows, danced and drank the night away or those that lost their shirts on the sideshows.

It was a cracking year, always a little Unfair but a bloody good laugh

 

 

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Festival Friends Glastonbury group show sideshow

Cannes Lions 17

Didn’t really know too much about this festival before i was asked to decorate a sea front house for this advertising award brouhaha. Cannes, the perpetual summer luxury conference center location, hosts the major media bands for the Cannes Lions Awards. The beachfront is turned into a media playground with bands, brands and sands. There is not a dry throat in the house.

June is always Glastonbury and the unfairground and leaving site, from a ratty trailer to a rosé fuelled piss up on a beach was quite bloody culture shock..paint in the sun all week.then fly back to return on  the Friday of the festival, back to the unfairground family of freaks, but more of that later…

Cannes is best described through pictures. A big Thanks to Ruby stone Productions for making it all happen, IPG Mediabrands , UM and Initiative as well as Jay Streetplay

It was a funny week, a dream like break from the shouty field on worthy farm. I met a lot of people, thanks to Rita ora, Halle berry and Hannah Bronfman for being such good sports and showing me how a selfie works.

 

 

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commission Festival mural murals street

Hidden Civil War

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Hidden Civil War is a month long programme of activity in Newcastle upon Tyne, commissioned by The NewBridge Project. Throughout October 2016 activists and artists contribute to a series of events that expose, collate and present evidence of a Hidden Civil War in Britain today.

Just back from Newcastle painting for the Hidden Civil War show . Had a cracking few days painting the ‘Union banner for the dispossessed’ both in the gallery and on the front of Cobalt studios in Ouseburn. The event happens across the city, with friends and family from the Unfairground dropping sculptures here and there, Jimmy Caulty with his riot in a container, protest jukeboxes and showings of the Battle of the bean field. The show is at Newbridge project gallery and well worth a visit. i even got a chance to do some urban exploring in the tunnels under Ouseburn and drop off a few kids.

Cobalt studios in Ouseburn was the location for my public mural in Newcastle. Surrounded by an ever increasing development of student accommodation Cobalt is fighting for it’s right to be arty.  The wall faces the office of the developers and hopefully sends the right message. Gentrification happens because of places like Cobalt and it’s a ignorant developer that ignores the reason why people are drawn in the area in the first palce.

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The gallery show is in the centre of town at the Newbridge Project gallery. A cracking space with a great team behind it. The space will host a series of works made for the hidden civil war dialogue. Pop in pick up a newspaper, watch a movie or put on a protest song on the jukebox…show opens on the 30th of September. The program and paper are available here

Of course there was some time for some late night fun!

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long_line

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Festival Glastonbury Mutoid waste department

Glastonbury Unfairground 2016

I have to say, this year the Unfairground looked the best it ever has! The new Battle bus stage, with 2 1980’s london single decker buses being dragged from the field by cherubs and skeleton horses, really was one of the most dramatic stage settings in the whole of the Naughty corner. Ben Eine’s huge text warned Incurable, Imperfect, Send help! Giles walkers robot’s sold drugs on the path through using the legendary voice of Mac, while auto begger jackpot machines by myself and George Tomlinson declared the punters winners and thanked them for their 50p’s. So many new elements this year that made the unfair experience complete!

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We were already in mourning onsite with the loss of one of our true heroes Uncool Dave earlier in the year, to top it all we lost a true friend during the build, Josh Knotty a talented and integral member of the unfairground crew. R.I.P Josh, Dave. Gone but not forgotten.
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Dave’s the one you don’t recognise.

George Tomlinson and I built two auto beggers, the principle being that some pinball tat that we got of pinball geoff got us thinking of coin slot fun for the unfairground. We came up with one armed bandits that did nothing but illuminate in lights the fact you were a winner or thanked you for your coins… pointless and unfair i think you will agree.

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I will have to thank Ben and ivana who smashed out some topical words and pulled all the stuff together, cheers guys!

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and of course Micheal Evis and Bez for making it all happen

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and all of you who brought all the glamour!

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Categories
Festival street

Marrakech Report

2. Dotmaster picking out spraycans with MB6 Street Art curator Vestalia Chilton, Marrakesh_Photo_©_Ian_Cox_2016
Marrakech was a blast. a real change of cultures, a lesson in patience and a change of pace. It started weirdly with Louis Theroux and his family on our easy jet flight from Gatwick (the unfinished airport). He was to reappear daily while we were painting, just to weird us out. Marrakech is an assault on the senses, the bustle of the souks the smells of spice and moped fumes, the call of shop keepers “come look Ali Babba”. It’s a crazy whirl of getting lost continually, trying to find the walls.

It was a nice mix of folk curated by Atttollo,  for the Mb6 street art festival. Local boy Kalamour joined Alexey Luka from Moscow, Giacomo Bufarini aka Run from Italy via Stoke Newington (my old stomping ground), LX one from France, Remi Rough and Yesbee from Saaf London and all three in the Agents for Change crew, Mad C from Germany and old friends Lucy Mclauchlan and Sickboy from Nuart and the Widewalls Majorca easter break, with Ian cox on the camera it was like old times.
9. Dotmasters MB6 Street Art photo ©_Ian_Cox_2016

When first asked to participate in MB6 street art festival i was very aware i was going to paint in a culture not my own. My usual subjects were not going to work in an islamic country. Islam resists to the representation of living beings both man and animals this ultimately stems from the belief that the creation of living forms is unique to God. So my western stuff like trash, toys and rude kids were out. Marrakech is often called the rose city for its colour, everything is painted a reddish brown, coupled with the fact that Morocco is a major producer of rose oil with a unique fragrance meant that i had found something local i could focus on. The cabbage rose that grows there is not a looker, (its called the cabbage rose for a reason) so i picked a prettier version to paint.

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The scaffolding was scary but the locals made me welcome, being asked to eat with the local masons and given countless cups of Moroccan whiskey (mint tea) from the berber barrow boys who carry goods in and out of the souks.

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We were housed in a couple of cool riads across the city with the sun beating down on us painting during the day it was a cool place to hang out at night. As the week went on the Marrakech Biennale started with a series of parties, where tiny snacks and large amounts of alcohol often equalled drunk artists, a bloody good laugh was had by all. A massive thanks to Ahmed our local fixer and practical guy and of course his assistant Hassan. Big thanks to both Gladys and Elena who helped the wheels stay on the cart, and of course to Vestalia and Terrence who organised the whole affair.

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Categories
Festival travel

Marrakech Biennale

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In Marrakech this week painting for the Biennale with MB6, amazing place, really another world. Its early days and i’ve just started painting, going to be a weird Dotmasters piece and i have had to find something non figurative to fit with the local culture. More info as it happens